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Tehran, Iran – Decision-makers in Iran are now considering the implications of Vice President JD Vance’s removal from the Iran file to focus on domestic issues, which analysts say could increase the chances of conflict between the two sides.

Vance has been the US’s chief negotiator in talks with Iran, but US President Donald Trump told him to direct his focus on alleged Democratic “corruption”, according to a post by Trump on Truth Social on Thursday. He added that a deal with Iran was no longer a priority for the government.

The vice president is believed to be viewed by Tehran as one of the more pragmatic figures in the Trump administration since the US and Israel launched their surprise war on Iran on February 28.

Nasser Hadian, professor of international relations at the University of Tehran, said that by assigning Vance to the case of alleged domestic corruption, Trump was mainly signalling a confrontation with the Democrats after their sweeping victories against the governing Republican Party in the midterm elections.

But the move may also serve Israel, which is reportedly eager for Trump to launch new strikes against Iran, after Vance blamed the Republicans’ humiliating defeat in the midterms on the war.

“Another signal is to Iran, essentially saying reaching a deal now is not a priority, and that the person known to have a relatively softer stance on Iran was redirected to other issues,” Hadian said.

The negotiator

Vance is believed to have been in favour of a negotiated resolution to the war, due to its rising economic costs for US citizens and their opposition to the war suggested in opinion polls.

The vice president was backed by Trump envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff when he negotiated the now-defunct memorandum of understanding with Iran in June, which briefly paused the war and resumed shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.

Rubio has, meanwhile, called Iranian authorities “insane” for their demands on ending the war. But he also acknowledged the cost of an all-out war and seeks to win via deepening economic pressure and isolation on all Iranians.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who has faced an impeachment vote due to his role in the war, and Central Command chief Brad Cooper are reportedly in favour of renewed military action against Iran.

Vance wrote a letter to Iran’s security chief, Mohsen Rezaei, in late October, as regional mediators redoubled their efforts to bridge gaps between the two sides. Rezaei initially described the tone of the missive as positive, but by last week, he was addressing claims of progress and a possible direct meeting with Vance as “fake news about imaginary talks”.

“You lost the war and the election. Vance has conceded, Rubio is heading for the exit, Hegseth is about to be fired, and the CENTCOM commander is now a podcaster!” he wrote on X at the time.

‘With or without Vance’

Mediated contacts are ongoing between the two sides, but no breakthrough is expected. Tehran is demanding seven conditions and clear sequencing of concessions to end the war, but this is appearing to be unacceptable to the US.

Mohammad Saleh Sedghian, director of the Arab Center for Iranian Studies, pointed out that Trump has repeatedly highlighted alleged rifts within the Iranian negotiating team. But he said Iranian authorities were also questioning the reliability of another potential agreement with Washington.

“Even if you can imagine Mr Rezaei sitting down with Mr Vance, and reaching a deal? What guarantee is there that Trump will enforce it?” he told Al Jazeera.

The atmosphere of mistrust between the two sides is also complicating prospects of a deal, he added. This means that the ongoing US siege on Iran and harsh sanctions will continue, something that could cost Iran more than a relatively shorter military conflict with Washington, he added.

“The blockade and disruptions are significantly raising the costs for Iranian people. The current state of no war and no negotiated resolution is very dangerous,” Sedghian said.

Iranian reformist newspaper Shargh argued this week that Vance’s role concerning Iran is unresolved rather than definitely terminated, but also said the conflict could further escalate.

Conservative Farhikhtegan daily disputed the portrayal of Vance as genuinely antiwar, arguing that diplomacy, military force and economic pressure ultimately serve a common objective for the US in trying to coerce Iran to accept its conditions.

For now, the two sides are continuing to fight over control in the Strait of Hormuz, with retaliatory attacks on shipping and military installations.

On Friday and Saturday, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and regular army separately claimed several new incidents of vessels either hitting naval mines or being struck by projectiles after attempting “unauthorised” routes in the critical waterway.

The latest weekly report by the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) on Friday reported eight incidents in and around the strait, mostly in the southern route near Oman.

UKMTO also recorded 139 outbound and 169 inbound transits through the strait during the week, approximately 65 percent below pre-conflict levels.

Hadian believes that Iranian decision-makers will not tolerate the current situation indefinitely.

“The authorities will either go after their warships, their vessels, or their military bases,” he added. “The stronger the blockade becomes, including through maritime pressure and disruptions for overland borders and air travel, war becomes more probable.”

But Trump’s sidelining of Vance on the Iran issue will not radically alter the current situation, Hadian said, since Washington believes its tactic of economic pressure on Tehran can force it to make concessions.

“The US would have done this with or without Vance, and I believe it will continue to do this,” he said.

It’s been nearly 150 years since a Black man has represented Deep South and deep red Mississippi in the U.S. Senate.

That changed Wednesday evening as Democrat Scott Colom was declared the winner over Republican incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith, who had been endorsed by President Donald Trump. For many in the state and for Black Americans across the nation, Colom’s victory reflects the ambitions that were thwarted by generations of systemic oppression and violence.

Janice Johnson, who lives in Greenville in the Mississippi Delta, says having a Black senator has been a long time coming. “In the last few years we have seen great strides,” she said.

Out of all the southern states, Mississippi has a special place in the struggle over Black Americans’ exclusion from the nation’s promises of freedom and justice. There’s Ida B. Wells-Barnett, the Mississippi-born journalist who investigated 19th century lynching across the South, and Emmett Till, the 14-year-old whose 1955 kidnapping and murder by white men in Mississippi reinvigorated the Civil Rights Movement.

There’s Medgar Evers, the NAACP’s first Mississippi field secretary who fought at Normandy in World War II and organized Black voter registration until his 1963 assassination. And Fannie Lou Hamer, the civil rights leader who challenged Mississippi’s all-white delegation at the 1964 Democratic National Convention.

Rep. Bennie Thompson, who represents Mississippi’s 2nd District, was a student organizer for Hamer while studying at Tougaloo College, where Colom’s victory celebration was held Wednesday night. And now, Thompson is watching his mentee, Sen.-elect Colom, fill a more than 145-year gap of Black leadership in statewide office.

“From my perspective, I now have a partner in Washington,” Thompson said before introducing Colom.

“I can’t help but think about Medgar Evers on Veterans Day,” Colom said during a victory speech. “A moment like this, where he served his country and came home to Mississippi, when they wouldn’t let him vote. But he had the faith that Mississippi could make progress. … He had faith that a day like this was possible.”

He added, “All I did was have the courage to imagine a night like this.”

Johnson, who watched part of Colom’s victory speech from home, says she understands that Black voters, alone, aren’t responsible for Colom’s win. White voters, too, had to be fed up with the state’s economy, school systems and crumbling health care infrastructure for the poor — Black and white — under Republican rule.

“The most important part is we’ve got to have faith that Mississippi is ready to do the right thing,” an elated Johnson told The Associated Press on Thursday. “We as a people — and Mississippi as whole — are ready to show the nation. We have to work together, and that was his message. He wants to help pull us together.”

Jerome Dunn, a barber in Jackson, echoed Johnson’s sentiment.

“It takes everybody to vote, not one single race,” said Dunn, 59, who is Black and also voted for Colom. “I think people are looking for him to work for everybody. People are tired of Republicans and what they believe.”

Two came before Colom

Blanche K. Bruce, a Republican, was the second Black man in the Senate from Mississippi after that state’s legislature elected him to a six-year term. He served from 1875 to 1881. Hiram Revels, another Republican, was the first after the Senate voted to seat him in 1870 to fill a vacancy left empty since the start of the Civil War. Revels’ term expired about a year later.

Bruce and Revels were among 16 Black men from southern states who served in Congress during the period of Reconstruction, which aimed to address the inequities experienced by Black people during enslavement, while preparing reentry for the 11 Southern states that seceded from the union at the start of the U.S. Civil War.

Once Reconstruction ended and federal troops were withdrawn, freed slaves in the South lost many of the freedoms gained following the war as Southern states enforced racial segregation through Jim Crow-era laws.

White conservatives have dominated Mississippi’s Statehouse and congressional delegation ever since. Nearly all were white Democrats as laws restricted where Black people could live, work and go to school. That weight carried on through the Civil Rights era, but during the late 1960s white elected leaders in Mississippi switched political parties and became Republicans.

Colom’s win represents “a pretty significant change in Mississippi politics,” said Brian Shoup, head of political science and public administration at Mississippi State University.

“We haven’t seen a Democrat win the Senate since the 1980s and even then that was a traditional kind of more southern conservative Democrat,” the professor said. “We haven’t had an African American senator since the era of Reconstruction, so this is obviously a very significant and important election in Mississippi history.”

Mississippi has been burdened by its racial legacy

Black voters in Mississippi and across the South were faced with the reality of redistricting efforts designed to reduce Black representation in elected positions, set off in late April by a Supreme Court decision that gutted the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965. The ruling helped fuel increased voter turnout.

But it’s difficult for many to ignore Mississippi’s troubling past involving race relations, from the lynching of Black people by the Ku Klux Klan and other mobs to the killings of Evers and Till.

In his 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech, civil rights icon the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. referred to Mississippi as a state “sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression.”

Colom’s election is historic and means things are changing in parts of the South, said Elnora Fisher, 68, of Greenville, who was born and raised in Mississippi where she remembers that simply living often didn’t seem fair to Black people.

“As I understood, my grandparents always tried to save up to vote,” Fisher said. “They had to pay a tax to vote.”

As a child during the 1960s, Fisher said her mother took her to an NAACP meeting. “While we were there the white police stopped the meeting and made us leave,” she said.

Black people in Mississippi should be ecstatic with Colom as a U.S. senator, Fisher added.

“Here in Mississippi, so much has been taken from the poor people and given to the rich people,” she said. “I hope Colom will give back to the people who helped get him where he is.”

Good may come of it all with so many eyes on the results of the contest between Colom and Hyde-Smith, said Shoup, the professor. Mississippians, along with the rest of the nation, may be ready to begin healing from the past.

“This race, the fact that it has been so close, and it has activated so much turnout, might portend the prospects of maybe being able to talk about these things in a more civil and open fashion,” he said.

Williams writes for the Associated Press. Sophie Bates in Jackson, Miss., and Aaron Morrison in New York contributed to this report.

A stunning view on the Isle of Skye

At Camasunary bay on the Strathaird peninsula of the Isle of Skye, we watched an otter at low tide lifting seaweed to find crabs. Boots off, we crossed one of Skye’s shortest (and coldest) rivers, before slogging upwards through unforgiving heather to the col beneath the pathless hill Sgùrr na Strì. The mountain view from the summit’s glaciated slabs is perhaps the finest in Scotland – or even Europe. Below is landlocked Loch Coruisk, girdled by the black teeth of the entire Cuillin ridge. Extraordinary. An hour passed, maybe two, before we headed back. The otter was by then long gone, hopefully just as replete and satisfied as we were.

Hugh Jones

Winter walking on the Cape Wrath trail

I did a long-distance winter walk on part of the Cape Wrath trail, heading south from the hamlet of Strathcarron to Fort William. Initially, the weather was perfect, with temperatures of about -4C, but then a full-on named storm blew in. I camped a couple of nights, but all my water froze. I then stayed in some great bothies. After five days, the only other person I had seen was at a gift shop in Morvich.

Tim

Pristine beaches on the Isle of Lewis

My girlfriend and I pitched our tent at Ardroil Sands, dropping a fiver into the campsite honesty box and putting aside pound coins for the hot showers later. The weather was unusually warm and there really was a tropical feel to the place. After firing up our barbecue, the glassy Atlantic beckoned. With dry bags strapped to our paddleboards, we launched into the turquoise waters of Uig. As we skirted rugged headlands and the water beneath us shifted to deep sapphire, we glided into the hidden sanctuary of Carnish Beach, claiming our own untouched white-sand paradise at the edge of the world.

Jason

Rewilding in Glen Affric

Last September, I spent a week in Athnamulloch Bothy in Glen Affric with 10 other like-minded people of different ages and backgrounds, planting trees, removing old deer fencing, climbing hills and viewing beaver lodges from canoes. We were volunteering for Trees for Life, which manages a range of rewilding projects in the north-west Highlands from their tree nursery base at Dundreggan (which also hosts volunteers). I found wonderful company and fulfilling activities all in an utterly beautiful location. The cost (£690) includes accommodation and food, with all profits going to the charity.

Debbie Carr

Blissful isolation on Iona

The tiny island of Iona might be best known for its medieval abbey and nunnery, but the whole southern part of the island is uninhabited and wild – you can explore all day and not see another soul. There’s an abandoned marble quarry, several idyllic bays and stunning views everywhere you look. And when you get tired of exploring and isolation, you can quickly head back into the village for food and drink.

Roddy

The beauty of Kintyre

I visited the remote Kintyre peninsula in a very wet January and was still blown away by its beauty. The world-class whisky distilleries and log fires helped, as did the sandy beaches and historic sites. The quality of the seafood rivalled that of Oban. I loved it so much I visited again in summer, and also went to the Isle of Gigha, another incredible place. This time the sun was shining and we got that Caribbean feeling. Can’t wait to go back again.

Michelle

An adventure in Knoydart

It was an adventure to get into and out of remote Knoydart. There are no roads, so the choice is between a multiday hike from Kinloch Hourn or Glenfinnan, or the 40-minute ferry from Mallaig. We took the latter, which proved an adventure in itself. Magnificent Munros rise sharply above shimmering sea lochs, while ancient woodlands and quiet shores offer plenty of red deer and dolphin sightings. Our hike up Ladhar Bheinn offered dramatic views over the area, and on another day we followed some locals on part of the Cape Wrath trail. We stayed in the village of Inverie and visited the UK’s most remote pub, the Old Forge. Inverie sits on beautiful Loch Nevis – often called the Loch of Heaven because of its idyllic calm waters and spacious open setting.

Joe

Sea kayaking on the west coast

A multiday sea kayaking journey in the Moidart and Arisaig region on the west coast fully immersed us in a remote wilderness. Unzipping our tents each morning above a glorious white beach with our kayaks there ready was unreal. We would paddle past seals, lunch on another beach or island, and enjoy the ever-changing vistas of distant islands and a delightful new camping spot every evening. Dinner cooked after a day’s paddling tasted fabulous, and the sunsets over the sea, which few others got to see, were sublime. The trip was through Arisaig Sea Kayak Centre and cost £595.

Glynis Davies

Winter wonders on Mull

The Ardmeanach peninsula in February offers a broody atmosphere and wonderful wildlife. Thin red sunrises illuminated the wake of an otter swimming past our lochside cottage window; the shortened days featured thunderous clouds, snow and rainbows. Atop a wizened Scots pine in Tiroran forest, a majestic sea eagle perched in sunlit splendour. A noble stag held our enraptured gaze in a stunning roadside encounter. Shoreside walks, through volcanic rocks erupted a mere 60 million years ago, led to basalt columns and, for the brave (the paths are narrow and vertiginous), MacCulloch’s Fossil Tree, trapped in lava for ever.

Barbara Maher

Winning tip: forest and corries on a long Cairngorms hike

One of the most incredible multiday hikes is into the heart of the Cairngorms. Start at Glenmore (there’s a campsite on the beach of Loch Morlich, or great rooms and a bar at the Lodge) and walk an hour or so on a good path up to Ryvoan bothy, through woodland alive with crested tits, red squirrels and capercaillie. Walk past Bynack More and round to Lairig an Laoigh, where you might feel like the only people in the world. You can wild camp on the route below pure dark skies, but it’s a walk up the Fords of Avon that is the real highlight. A rough path takes you past Beinn Mheadhoin (worth diverting up for the huge rock formations on the summit) until Loch Avon opens up in front of you – one of the most stunning corries in Scotland and a beautiful place for a swim, a climb or just to lie back and watch the world.

Hannah

A Place In The Sun returned to screens with Ben Hillman back at the helm, but the search for Jacqueline’s dream home on the Greek island of Lefkada took an unexpected turn

A Place In The Sun took an uncomfortable twist when a prospective buyer chose to abandon the viewing after being presented with a particular property.

The popular Channel 4 programme returned on Tuesday (November 3) with Ben Hillman once again presenting. Searching for her ideal residence on the Greek island of Lefkada was Jacqueline, from Shropshire.

She was accompanied by sister-in-law Linda for the hunt and had a maximum budget of £302k for her perfect overseas home: a 2-3 bedroom property with a luxurious pool and scenic views. The hunt didn’t begin particularly well, but when it came to property number four, matters took an unforeseen direction.

The fourth property – which featured three bedrooms and two bathrooms – was merely 60 seconds from a beach. Yet immediately, Jacqueline highlighted how it was “a bit close to the road”. Ben agreed: “It’s a busy road, but think how quickly you could be to different places.”, reports the Express.

Linda then said: “It’s very pretty to look at. It’s an attractive-looking house.” However, Jacqueline added: “That traffic is quite noisy.” Ben asked: “Alright, then hit me with it. What do you want to do? Do you want to move on or investigate further?”.

But for Jacqueline she had witnessed sufficient and replied: “No, I think I’ll give this one a miss. The garden is small but it’s the noise of the traffic, I couldn’t get used to that. Definitely not.”

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Ben added: “It’s too much for you,” in which Jacqueline agreed: “Yeah.” In a voice-over, Ben admitted: “I am a bit disappointed that this beachside house isn’t right for my house hunters.”

Fans at home also reacted to the fourth property, with some slamming Ben for showing them a property so close to a busy road. On X, one person wrote: “What’s the point of showing them a house right next to such a busy junction. Very few people would settle for that noise.”

Someone else quipped: “Speak up Ben we can’t hear you for the traffic.” A third chimed in: “The noise from the road would drive me crazy.”

Another also said: “Instant nope, that is a super busy and loud road about 2ft from your house, there’s also barely any outside space and would you want to be outside with that road noise? Nah no ta.”

A Place In The Sun airs Monday to Friday at 6pm on Channel 4.

In California, fuel prices often are higher than anywhere else in the country, a reflection of the state’s high cost of living that voters want their next governor to address.

The two candidates running to replace termed-out Gov. Gavin Newsom — Democratic former U.S. Health and Human Services secretary Xavier Becerra and Republican former Fox News host Steve Hilton — have vastly different views on climate and energy policy.

Here is where they stand on gas prices, electric vehicle mandates and California’s long-delayed high-speed rail project.

Gas prices and California’s refineries

California is the most expensive gasoline market in the nation, according to AAA, with an average price of $6.01 per gallon. Nationally, the average price was $4.28 per gallon, and this month was expected to become the most expensive for gas prices on record, according to AAA.

Becerra and Hilton both blame the high costs on the opposing political party — Becerra says President Trump’s war in Iran has increased prices by $2 per gallon, while Hilton blames California’s prices on policies pushed by Newsom and Democratic lawmakers.

Hilton has made the promise of $3 a gallon gasoline at California’s pumps a central plank of his affordability campaign. He argues he can achieve the target by repealing “outdated” environmental regulations and issuing more drilling permits in California.

Pumps in the McKittrick oil field, just north of the town of McKittrick on State Route 33.

(Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times)

“We could be producing most of it here in California, [in] Kern County, and sending it to the refineries in a nice clean pipeline,” Hilton said during an August town hall in Modesto. “Instead of that, we’re shipping it halfway across the world, and giant super tankers spewing out carbon emissions. It’s insane.”

While he has expressed a desire to lower costs, Becerra has released scant details about how he would do it.

He took heat from fellow Democrats during the primary for defending Chevron after the oil producer donated half a million dollars to a committee supporting his campaign. He clarified that his statements were about keeping oil refineries in California, especially since several have shut down in recent years.

“We need to continue to have refineries so that we can process the petroleum, so we can have gasoline, so we don’t have prices that are even higher than what they are right now,” Becerra said during an August event with Politico.

EVs and car regulations

The next governor will decide whether to continue Newsom’s ambitious plan to accelerate the transition to zero-emission vehicles by banning the sale of new gas cars in California by 2035.

While Becerra supports transitioning away from gas-powered vehicles, along with California’s broader carbon neutrality goals, he has raised concerns about costs.

“The goal is great. What we have to do is make sure that goal matches the reality of our families,” he told CalMatters this year. “And if our families can’t afford to keep pace with the goal, then what good is the goal?”

Becerra would be open to revising or delaying the goals to prioritize affordability.

Hilton would end the state’s climate goals, which he blames for driving up energy and other costs.

A car charges at an EV station.

(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)

“I’m not against reducing carbon emissions,” Hilton said during a town hall with The Times and LAist this month. “I just want to do it in a way that both helps with the fight against climate change, but doesn’t hurt working people and small businesses.”

He argued that increasing domestic oil production and overhauling vegetation management to reduce the risk of megafires would reduce emissions more effectively than decades of heavy-handed climate rules.

Hilton has railed against “nanny-state” regulations, including new fuel efficiency standards for car tires.

“We are gonna shut it all down, rein it in, merge all of these regulators so we have common-sense regulation instead of this out of control, costly bureaucracy,” he said, standing outside a state office building in August to protest the tire regulations. He also has pledged to abolish the Department of Motor Vehicles and reduce registration fees to $73.

High-speed rail

The Tied Arch Bridge construction site, which will take high-speed trains over State Route 43 in Fresno County.

(Godofredo A. Vásquez / Associated Press)

Hilton would “cancel” all high-speed rail funding, which he said would save more than $3.7 billion per year.

While supportive of high-speed rail, Becerra is concerned by the project’s delays and cost overruns. He would “clean shop” at the authority, which signed off on hundreds of thousands of dollars in travel expenses that should not have been approved, according to a recent audit.

“If we build, it’s gonna be because we can get this done the right way. We’re not gonna have this overspending, we’re not gonna have this misspending,” he said during a recent campaign stop in Sacramento. “California is the fourth-largest economy, with the most innovation. We can get it done too, but it won’t be done this way.”

More California statewide elections

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On the gable walls of the tough, working-class streets of east Belfast, the mystical beasts of Narnia vie for brick space with balaclava-wearing loyalists. The murals of the city have long projected the power of paramilitaries, but in recent years they have also begun to reflect the more positive contributions made by other local people, including the author CS Lewis.

Lewis was born in Dundela in 1898 in an attractive terrace house that has sadly since been demolished to be replaced by rather unattractive flats. But elsewhere in this part of the city, the Lewis connection is being built on and celebrated. CS Lewis Square is in the Holywood Arches neighbourhood and has a short walking trail featuring metal sculptures of Mr and Mrs Beaver, Mr Tumnus and other beloved characters from The Chronicles of Narnia. The centrepiece is a gigantic Aslan, towering over all from atop a circular mound.

About 15 minutes’ walk away, St Mark’s church on the Holywood Road is the proud custodian of a much smaller lion that may have inspired Lewis’s creation of Aslan. His grandfather, the Rev Thomas Hamilton, ministered here, living in the rectory for 13 years, and his front door was decorated with a beautiful brass lion’s head doorknob. The original has been removed for safekeeping, but an exact replica attracts thousands of Lewis pilgrims each year.

Leafy Circular Road, half a mile away, is where the Lewis family moved in 1905 to a large, redbrick house that, back then, was on the outskirts of the city. The road has since been subsumed by the growth of the town, but remains the realm of the prosperous. The house, called Little Lea, is privately owned, but can be seen from the iron gates at the end of the drive.

“To a child, it seemed less like a house than a city,” Lewis wrote of the family home in his autobiography, Surprised By Joy. “I am a product of long corridors, empty sunlit rooms, upstairs indoor silences, attics explored in solitude.”

Little Lea appears in the opening two Narnia books, first when a boy exploring a large attic in The Magician’s Nephew finds a way into another world, and then in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe when a game of hide and seek leads a group of inquisitive children to that same magical world a generation later.

Although it was close to east Belfast’s industrial heartland, it was also just a fence clamber away from the fields, hills and woodland glens that fringed the city like a vast adventure playground. As children, Lewis and his elder brother Warnie seem to have had a freedom to wander that would terrify modern parents. They would trek for hours up into the hills between Belfast and Strangford Lough, and travelling that way today still evokes a sense of romantic escapism.

The Belmont Road takes you up, climbing dramatically out of the city and into the expansive high ground that towers over Belfast, Bangor and Newtownards. There are many viewpoints up here. Lewis didn’t record the exact spot that inspired the following ethereal description of the views he loved, but for this writer, the crags of the Whitespots country park on the hill above Newtownards are a pretty good bet, especially as this place also chimes loudly with his descriptions of the stone table on which Aslan was sacrificed in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

“Looking south with a little east in it, a different world,” he writes in Surprised By Joy. “And having seen it, blame me if you can for being a romantic. For here is the thing itself, utterly irresistible, the way to the world’s end, the land of longing, the breaking and blessing of hearts. You are looking across … the plain of Down, and seeing beyond it the Mourne Mountains.”

Lewis once told Warnie that the view from the Mournes above Rostrevor looking down over Carlingford Lough was his idea of Narnia. The statement is now stencilled on a bench at a viewpoint in the town’s Kilbroney forest park. Sitting there, in the majesty of this area, it is easy to imagine, as Lewis later wrote in an essay, that a “giant might raise his head over the next ridge”.

Rostrevor is an hour’s drive south of Belfast, and an hour’s drive in the other direction will take you to the equally spectacular north coast, where Lewis holidayed with his mother as a young child. There’s an ongoing debate among Lewis scholars and his many passionate fans about whether it was Dunluce Castle or Downhill Demesne that inspired Cair Paravel, the castle capital of Narnia.

The ruins of Dunluce perch precipitously on the coast east of Portrush, while Downhill Demesne, near Castlerock, contains what remains of the old Downhill House but also the iconic Mussenden Temple, which much better fits the description of Cair Paravel looking “like a great star resting on the seashore”.

Lewis was writing his autobiography at the same time he was producing the seven Chronicles of Narnia. The experiences and landscapes he was remembering for his memoir very likely bled into the creation of his magical kingdom. And so the heavenly, pastoral landscapes of Narnia on the murals of east Belfast might feel familiar even to those locals who haven’t read the books or watched the screen adaptations. The wholesome images of his imagination being sandwiched between paintings glorifying terrorism is an unusual setting for a tribute to the world’s most famous Christian apologist, but perhaps in Belfast, as in Narnia, good will win in the end.

The first of Netflix’s new The Chronicles Of Narnia adaptations, Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew, will be released in cinemas on 12 February 2027 and on Netflix on 2 April. Surprised by Joy by CS Lewis © 1955 CS Lewis Pte Ltd, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe by CS Lewis © 1950 CS Lewis Pte Ltd

WASHINGTON — Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islander adults have become more disillusioned with President Trump and Republicans as the Nov. 3 midterm elections approach, according to a new AP-NORC/AAPI Data poll, giving Democrats a substantial edge on major issues like the economy and health care.

The survey, which was conducted from Sept. 8-15 by AAPI Data and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, reveals that Trump’s standing on the economy has fallen among AAPI adults over the course of his second term.

About one-quarter of AAPI adults approve of the way Trump is handling his job as president overall. Only about 2 in 10 approve of his performance on the economy, which the vast majority of AAPI adults see as one of the most important issues for the upcoming election.

But although AAPI adults trust Democrats more than Republicans on a wide range of issues, views of the Democratic Party itself are still split.

Rebecca Larocco, a 45-year-old Korean American in Corning, Iowa, voted for Trump in 2016 and is leaning Republican in the midterm elections. She approves of his immigration policies but is unsure about Trump’s handling of the economy as the Iran war continues to compound gas prices.

“Where I’m at, it’s went up almost $1.50 (a gallon),” she said. “I didn’t expect to go into war at all, that has been definitely unexpected and I’m not sure… I’m just hoping they’ll do what they’re saying and get our economy back on track, get immigration and crime lowered.”

The economy is a top issue for AAPI adults

The economy remains top of mind for an overwhelming majority of the AAPI adult population when they consider the midterms. With the ongoing Iran war affecting gas prices and other costs staying elevated, Americans overall are deeply pessimistic about the state of the economy and see it as a high priority for the midterms. That includes AAPI adults — according to the poll, about 9 in 10 rank the economy as one of the most important issues for the upcoming election, and about 8 in 10 say this about the cost of living.

The economy, the cost of living and healthcare dwarf other issues for AAPI adults. About 7 in 10 AAPI adults say healthcare is one of the most important issues for the election, while only about half say this about foreign policy, crime, immigration, election fairness or climate change.

At the same time, Trump’s economic approval among AAPI adults has dropped about 10 percentage points over the course of the year, and there are other signs his popularity has waned with this group. In late 2024, just after the election, about 4 in 10 AAPI adults had a “somewhat” or “very” favorable view of Trump. That’s fallen to about 3 in 10 now.

“What the data show is that any gains that he made not only during the 2024 election — there was a bit of a honeymoon period that Trump enjoyed after the election before Inauguration Day — that has now largely disappeared,” said Karthick Ramakrishnan, founder and executive director of AAPI Data.

Len Takahashi, 57, of Universal City, Texas, describes himself as conservative but voted for Democrats in the last three presidential elections and for Republicans in midterm elections. For this midterm election, he is simply open to candidates who prioritize the economy.

“I would like policies that look in the best interest of the American public,” said Takahashi, who is Japanese American. “That could be bringing down spending, a balanced budget of U.S. spending, bringing down inflation, working towards a more stable economy and, lastly, just a better atmosphere between the far left and far right.”

AAPIs trust Democrats more on most issues but are not entirely sold on the party

Democrats have gained at Republicans’ expense since Trump returned to the White House when it comes to AAPI adults’ trust in handling many key issues.

In a March 2025 poll, AAPI adults were evenly divided over which political party would better handle the economy and immigration. Now, Democrats have a roughly 20-percentage-point advantage on both issues.

Meanwhile, around two-thirds of AAPI adults have a “somewhat” or “very” unfavorable view of the GOP. Only about one-quarter have a “somewhat” or “very” favorable view.

But while trust in the Democrats on specific issues has increased, AAPI adults are ambivalent about the party as a whole. About half, 48%, of AAPI adults have a “somewhat” or “very” unfavorable impression of the Democratic Party, while 44% have a “somewhat” or “very” favorable impression.

A separate AP-NORC survey of registered voters in September found, similarly, that while voters in general are deeply dissatisfied with Trump and the GOP, few think either party is capable of solving important problems.

Louise Rider, 40, is a Democrat living in Chicago. She believes Democrats are better than Republicans across all issues but says she’s unhappy with how the party has governed.

“I don’t think the Democrats are doing great, I think they need a lot of change as a party,” she said. “It’s kind of a helpless feeling, that nothing will get done with both parties unless there’s major changes.”

Some Republicans still stand behind Trump. James Finley, 74, of Lenox, Massachusetts, said Trump deserves some understanding because he cannot bring down high prices overnight. When it comes to Republicans in general, Finley is a little more critical.

“They’ve had the majority for a couple of years,” said Finley, whose ancestry includes Japanese heritage. “I think they could have done a little bit more or maybe a lot more in terms of passing certain things that I wanted to pass.”

Still, he sticks to the party line and because “all I ever hear from Democrats is to get Trump,” Finley said.

AAPIs concerned about fair midterm elections

As the election approaches, many AAPI adults are worried about problems with misinformation, legal challenges to the results, and voter suppression. About half of AAPI adults say it’s a “major problem” in U.S. elections that people who are eligible are not allowed to vote, while about two-thirds see foreign government attempts to influence results as a “major” problem.

Looking ahead to the November election, about half of AAPI adults are “extremely” or “very” concerned about fake or false information about the candidates, and about half also feel this way about legal challenges to the election results.

Finley is unsure if the voting process can be tightly monitored to prevent undocumented or unregistered people from attempting to vote.

But Takahashi, the conservative from Texas, is worried that Trump will try to manipulate the election.

He’s concerned, he said, that Trump would amplify claims of “fraud in the election system” should the midterms not go in his favor. “(He’ll) make that a point to distract the American public,” he said.

Tang, Jiang and Sanders write for the Associated Press. Tang reported from Phoenix and Jiang from New York. The poll of 1,023 U.S. adults who are Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander was conducted Sept. 8-15, using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based Amplify AAPI Panel, designed to be representative of the Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is ±4.7 percentage points. This poll is part of an ongoing project exploring the views of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, which are usually not highlighted in other surveys because of small sample sizes and lack of linguistic representation.